Newsletter: How to Use Twitter for Partnership Prospecting 🤝 ; Jersey Mike’s Subs Raises $20M on ‘Day of Giving’ 🤯 ; Alopecia Orgs Newsjack Chris Rock’s Oscars Joke🎙
Last week I shared an article on Twitter and added that if enough of you showed interest in the research - by clicking on the link! - I would explain how it changed my thinking on using Twitter for partnership prospecting.
The article had nearly 60 "clicks" and was the fourth most popular link in my newsletter last week. So here's my explanation!
Let me begin by saying that Twitter is a vastly underused tool for prospecting.
Being connected with someone on Twitter is not unlike having a prospect's phone number so you can text with them. It's a direct connection with someone and there are no gatekeepers.
But your success using Twitter as a partnership prospecting tool hinges on two important things.
Is the prospect on Twitter?
Is the prospect active on Twitter?
These two things are critical because if the person isn't on Twitter it's game over, right? You can't interact with someone on Twitter if they aren't on the platform!
The good news is that a lot of people are on Twitter. After all, Twitter does have hundreds of millions of users.
To discover if a prospect is on Twitter, I usually do one of two things.
Go to their LinkedIn profile and click on contact info at the top of the page. A lot of times people will list their Twitter handle there.
In Google type in the person's name + "Twitter". For example, type in "Joe Waters Twitter." You'll see a bunch of results, which you'll need to sort through to figure out if your prospect is one of people with an account. The more common the name the more challenging this is to do!
The next step is to determine if your prospect is ACTIVE on Twitter. Yes, there are a lot of people on Twitter, but the number of people actually using the platform is much smaller.
The easiest way to see if someone is active on Twitter is to go to their Twitter page and to look for recent tweets. For example, if you go to my page and scroll down you can see I'm active on Twitter. I tweet on most days.
Now, if you go to someone else's Twitter page and they last tweeted a month ago, you might conclude - as I would - that the person isn't active on the platform.
However....
👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 Here's how the article I shared last week changed my thinking on what qualifies as an "active" user on Twitter.
👀 = Observation
👨🏫 = Lesson for You
👀 Just because someone doesn't tweet a lot doesn't mean they're not active on Twitter. "Lurkers" (aka infrequent users who log on to scroll through tweets but only tweet a few times a month) make up half of Twitter's users. Wow!
👨🏫 Don't just look at their tweets. In addition to their tweets, look at their replies to tweets. This may confirm that they are more active than you thought.
👀 Lurkers are more likely to reply to a tweet. Lurkers don't tweet a lot but they do spend time on the platform and are more likely to reply to someone else's tweet.
👨🏫 Focus on replying to the tweets they are replying to. This might be your best shot of getting on a prospect's radar screen. For example, you could voice agreement with their reply or offer an alternative opinion. That may earn you a reply and a follow from them. That's a good first step to engaging them in conversation!
👀 Lurkers have far fewer followers than the average Twitter account. The typical lurker is followed by just 15 other users and generally follow more people than follow them back.
👨🏫 Don't discount someone because of follower count. Follower size is a vanity metric that doesn't tell the real story. Instead, confirm that there is a pulse of activity by checking the "tweets & replies" tab. If they are replying to tweets that's a good sign they might just converse with you, which is exactly what you want.
Replies are signs of life in an account and an opportunity to start connecting with a potential new partner! Again, Twitter is a direct connection with a prospect. When you combine it with other outreach tactics, the impact can be powerful.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. Jersey Mike's Subs goal was to raise at least $10 million for Special Olympics on March 31st. They raised a lot more than that.
2. Donate a buck at Arby's and they'll give you a free slider. Donations benefit these three nonprofits.
3. 4 Matching gift challenges (and how to solve them!). Learn more about maximizing matching gifts by attending the Boost Matching Conference [Sponsor].
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. A great lesson here for nonprofits. Love the people that already love you.
2. Alopecia organizations newsjack Chris Rock’s Oscars joke as education tool.
3. Why your organization needs a Wikipedia page and how to create one that actually gets approved (because it's wicked hahhd).
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Director, Corporate Partnerships & Engagement, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Tampa, FL
2. Partnership Manager, KaBOOM!, Washington, DC ($76k - $110k)
3. Director, Major Gifts, Denver Scholarship Foundation, Hybrid ($80k - $98k)
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. Not cause-related but just brilliant marketing. Jack in the Box trolled McDonald’s by pointing out the locations of its broken ice cream machines and promoting its own ⚫️☘️🥤 in the process.
2. Finally, some good news! Conspiracy theorists are punching each other in the face for charity. Too bad the charities they are supporting are anti-jab.
3. The brands that used "The Slap" to promote their products. When will they learn? 🙄
